Saxophone Quartet B flat major op. 109

Every classically trained saxophonist knows and plays this work: with his Saxophone Quartet, composed in 1932, Alexander Glazunov established virtually out of nowhere a new genre and helped the then unusual chamber music setting with four saxophones in different registers to achieve a breakthrough. The first edition, however, only appeared over twenty years after Glazunov’s death and exhibits numerous typographical errors and inaccuracies.

Fortunately, one of the outstanding young saxophone ensembles of our time has taken up the work and made extraordinary source discoveries in the process. Besides the autograph short score from a St. Petersburg archive, two manuscript copies of the score by Glazunov’s wife and by the legendary saxophonist Sigurd Raschèr, who personally visited Glazunov in Paris for this purpose, provide important information for the edition. Thus, this key work of classical saxophone literature can finally and for the first time be presented in Urtext quality.